Law Clerk
Salary

The average Law Clerk in the United States earns approximately $14.98 per hour. Career length is the biggest factor affecting pay for this group, followed by geography. Women make up a slight majority of Law Clerks (57 percent) survey respondents. While some workers in this profession — approximately one-half — do not have any health coverage, half do receive medical benefits and over a third have dental insurance. Work is enjoyable for Law Clerks, who typically claim high levels of job satisfaction. Participants in PayScale's salary questionnaire provided the particulars of this report.

XTotal Pay combines base annual salary or hourly wage, bonuses, profit sharing, tips, commissions, overtime pay and other forms of cash earnings, as applicable for this job. It does not include equity (stock) compensation, cash value of retirement benefits, or the value of other non-cash benefits (e.g. healthcare).

XTotal Pay combines base annual salary or hourly wage, bonuses, profit sharing, tips, commissions, overtime pay and other forms of cash earnings, as applicable for this job. It does not include equity (stock) compensation, cash value of retirement benefits, or the value of other non-cash benefits (e.g. healthcare).

Job Description for Law Clerk

A law clerk's primary function is to perform research pertaining to legal issues. They may work for a judge or a private attorney. Law clerks provide necessary assistance to those in professional law positions who cannot do all of the research and paperwork themselves. They may also assist a judge in making legal decisions.

Law clerks must have a broad understanding of how the law works and must be prompt in finding the necessary information in their research. Legal proceedings often move very quickly and cannot be halted because the law clerk is taking a long time to find the information. Therefore, law clerks must be skilled at using information systems. The position of law clerk is usually a stepping stone leading to other major positions in law, such as the positions of a lawyer or a judge. A law clerk's work setting can include a legal library, legal office, private office, or courtroom. Law clerks may often perform their duties around the regular hours in which courts are open. Courts are generally open Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., but they may have to perform research at all hours of the night and on weekends. Law clerks generally do the "grunt" work of the legal profession while building their skills to move up in the system.

Law clerks must be graduates of law schools. They do not usually need any professional experience, as many law clerks come straight out of school. They must be highly organized and able to make good use of documentation computer programs. They also must be skilled writers and legal researchers. Many positions also require accomplishments such as graduating in the top 10% of the class.

The job of a law clerk is an important position that assists those in higher positions in the legal process. Law clerks must work diligently to perform their duties, even when it inconveniences their personal life. This is the entry-level position in the legal profession that lawyers and judges often hold early in their careers.

Law Clerk Tasks

Research and analyze law sources to prepare drafts of briefs or arguments for review, approval and use by attorney.

Common Career Paths for Law Clerk

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It's not very common for Law Clerks to move on to become General Counsels. Average pay for a General Counsel is $148K annually. Attorneys or Associate Attorneys are common next-step roles for Law Clerks moving up in their careers; annual pay for Attorneys is $46K higher on average, and it's $38K higher for Associate Attorneys.

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Popular Skills for Law Clerk

This chart shows the most popular skills for this job and what effect each skill has on pay.

Survey results imply that Law Clerks put a diverse skill set to use. Most notably, skills in Legal Writing, Legal Document Review, Legal Research, and Technical Writing are correlated to pay that is above average, with boosts between 7 percent and 13 percent. Skills that seem to negatively impact pay include Client Interaction and Filing Court Documents. Those educated in Legal Research tend to be well versed in Legal Document Review.

Pay by Experience Level for Law Clerk

Median of all compensation (including tips, bonus, and overtime) by years of experience.

The average inexperienced worker's salary is approximately $33K, and people with five to 10 years of experience bring in more at around $39K on average. People with 10 to 20 years of experience make an average of about $39K in this role. Seasoned workers who boast more than two decades of relevant experience enjoy a median salary of $63K, which is substantially larger than the medians reported by folks with fewer years on their resumes.